Surge in Domestic Violence Feared in Wake of Hurricane Michael

"As Hurricane Michael whirled toward Florida over a week ago, Meg Baldwin went into overdrive. As executive director of Refuge House, which works to end domestic violence in the Big Bend, she had to ensure her organization was ready for what she knew was coming: increased calls to their hotline, and a spike in urgent need for shelter from survivors and victims.

Baldwin’s expectation didn’t come out of nowhere. When disaster strikes, domestic violence follows—not just in Florida but around the world, according to the World Health Organization. The violence can take many forms, from child abuse to sexual violence to intimate partner violence. People like Baldwin have seen it all firsthand before.

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And with residents of the Panhandle still reeling from Michael’s destruction, there are already signs that the cycle of violence could repeat itself.

“Weather events like these and disasters, in general, are opportunities for abusers—both domestic violence attackers and sexual assault perpetrators—to take advantage of the restrictive access survivors have to resources and to also take advantage of the isolation in the aftermath survivors experience,” Baldwin told Earther. “That isolation becomes even more intense and is even more of an opportunity for attackers to harm others.”

A considerable number of hotline calls came in before the storm in the eight northern Florida counties Refuge House serves, including hard-hit Wakulla and Gadsden counties, said Baldwin. People, largely women, were seeking immediate shelter (both from the storm and their abuser), and the House’s two emergency shelter locations were overcapacity by the time Hurricane Michael made landfall October 10 as a Category 4 storm. The shelters held more than 60 women between the two, compared with the usual 35 to 40, said Baldwin. A 20-person addition might not sound like a lot, but it is for this rural region..."

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